Cracking the Discovery Code: why discovery appeals to librarians

Graham Stone

Information Resources Manager

Some context

• Webscale discovery systems– Pre-harvested content with a single search interface– On the market for approximately 5 years– Summon, Worldcat local, Primo Central, Ebsco Discovery

Service

• Federated search and link resolvers– Out of scope for this session– Although still important!– …and don’t forget KBART (more on that later)

UK’s 1st Summon customer2009

3

E-resources @ Huddersfield

“Why is Google so easy and the library so hard?” [Tenopir, 2009]

“Why do we want to teach our users to be librarians?” [Pattern, 2009]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ppl_ri_images/4019188259/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/manfrys/2226178289/

What do we know about webscale discovery?

• Web Scale Discovery Services increase accessibility of e-resources and will definitely on the whole increase full-text downloads

• Undergraduates generally love discovery services• Librarians reactions towards discovery services are

mixed at bestAaron Tay, Senior Librarian at National University of Singapore

8 things we know about web scale discovery systems in 2013

http://tinyurl.com/naflluz

The usage element

• Libraries are under increasing pressure to show value for money

• Work on the Library Impact Data Project has shown a link between e-resource usage and attainment/retention

COUNTER downloadsBig deal 1

COUNTER downloadsBig deal 2

COUNTER downloadsBig deal 3

COUNTER downloadsSociety publisher

COUNTER downloadsPublisher not indexed in Summon

COUNTER downloadsFull text aggregator – in Summon!

COUNTER downloadsFull text aggregator – not in Summon!

COUNTER downloadsA&I database

The bigger pictureIt’s not just a Huddersfield thing

• Grand Valley and Manitoba saw a dramatic increase in FT downloads for e-journals and a drop in A&I after Summon implementation

• UTSA saw FT downloads increase by 23% after Summon implementation

• ODU saw increases after implementation of WorldCat Local– “…lowest amount of usage in a single month for the year of 2011

was higher than the highest usage month in 2010”

The user’s viewEnhancing the student experience

https://flic.kr/p/ohRcCA

Abdul PHD student and part-time lecturer

17

Summon is bloody brilliant… …It gives fast, efficient and above all

relevant search results

NicoleUndergraduate student

18

You’ve not got as many fiddly bits to do; you just type in what you want. It’s almost like Google Scholar, so I

like it for that.

Senior Lecturer University of Huddersfield

19

I love Summon, even an idiot like me can use it

The librarian’s viewCulture shock?

https://flic.kr/p/btbrEW

Dave Pattern University of Huddersfield

If your idea of a “good time” is to scare undergraduates in training sessions by

showing them journal database interfaces — “it’s OK, I’m a friendly librarian and I’m here

to show you just how hard it can be to find an article!” — then it’s probably high time you

sought medical counselling ;-)”

Pete CocoGrand Valley State University via ILI-L List

What Summon frees me to do... ...particularly in freshman courses, is to focus more on the concepts of information literacy that this system so elegantly demonstrates. What is peer-review? Why does it

matter? What is the difference between Google and the library? How does Google decide what to show you? Summon? Why isn't the stuff in Summon in

Google?”

Dr Antony OsborneAcademic Librarian, University of Huddersfield

The greatest impact on the way we teach information literacy is that it feels much simpler than having to

go through lots of different databases with students

Cancellation and acquisition A deal breaker?

• TERMS top 14 deal breakers when licensing electronic resources

• #10 Ability to use the resource and resource records with third party discovery tools

https://library3.hud.ac.uk/blogs/terms/terms/acquiring-new-content/

References

• Graves, T., & Dresselhaus, A. (2012). One academic library, One year of web-scale discovery. The Serials Librarian, 62(1-4), 169-175. doi: 10.1080/0361526X.2012.652915

• Kemp, J. (2012). Does web-scale discovery make a difference? Changes in collections use after implementing Summon. In M. P. Popp & D. Dallis (Eds.). Planning and implementing resource discovery tools in academic libraries (pp. 456-468). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

• O'Hara, L. (2012) Collection Usage Pre- and Post-Summon Implementation at the University of Manitoba Libraries. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 7(4), 25-34. http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP/article/view/12166

• Thoburn, J., Coates, A., & Stone, G. (2012) Simplifying resource discovery and access in academic libraries: Implementing and evaluating Summon at Huddersfield and Northumbria Universities. In M. P. Popp & D. Dallis (Eds.). Planning and implementing resource discovery tools in academic libraries (pp. 580-597). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/12138/

• Way, D. (2010). The impact of web-scale discovery on the use of a library collection. Serials Review, 36(4) 214-220. doi: 10.1016/j.serrev.2010.07.002

• Emery, Jill and Stone, Graham (2013) TERMS: Techniques for electronic resources management. Library Technology Reports, 49(2). pp. 5-43

Thank you!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

Graham Stoneg.stone@hud.ac.uk

@Graham_Stone

#6termshttp://eprints.hud.ac.uk/21270